Friday, July 22, 2005

Hundreds of floating candles will be launched by young Quakers to mark Hiroshima Day at 9:00 p.m. GMT on Friday August 5.

The event will be held at the University of York towards the end of the annual Quaker Yearly Meeting where over 1600 Quakers are meeting.

The bombing of Hiroshima took place 60 years ago at 08:16am, Japanese time on August 6, 1945.

Throughout the week leading up to the Hiroshima day witness on August 5, young Quakers will be planning, organising and preparing the event, including contacting the local community and the media.

[edit]

Friday, September 14, 2007

British bank Northern Rock received emergency loans from the Bank of England yesterday, as it felt the effects of the financial crisis originating in the U.S. subprime mortgage market. Queues formed outside branches as many customers sought to withdraw their savings, and shares fell heavily.

Northern Rock, based in Newcastle, is one of the UK’s largest mortgage lenders, with total assets and loans of £113 billion. Pressure has grown on the bank as other institutions have become less willing to buy mortgage debt, following the American subprime crisis.

The support from the central bank was authorised by the Government and the Financial Services Authority, following assurances that the problems were temporary and the bank remained solvent. Some current mortgages are being used as collateral. The lending is an “unlimited” facility, at an interest rate higher than the base rate. Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling, speaking on Radio 4’s Today programme, encouraged customers to carry on as normal, stating that “Northern Rock will be able to carry on its business”.

Northern Rock chief executive Adam Applegarth also called for calm, but customers were seen queuing outside branches across the country to withdraw money. It is reported that the company website also crashed under the demand.

Shares in the bank fell 31.5% on Friday, down almost 60% from their highest value this year. Applegarth admitted that profits would be hit, but stated that the bank would adapt to the changes. Shares in other lenders also fell, with Paragon being the most extreme, dropping almost 17%. The FTSE 100 closed down 1.17% (74 points) following a recovery in the afternoon.

The last time the Bank of England acted as “lender of last resort” in this way was in 1973, after the collapse of Cedar Holdings.

Friday, February 5, 2010

Chinese animator Te Wei has died at the age of 95 in Shanghai.

The cause of death was announced as respiratory failure. Wei was known for his traditional style of art.

Born in 1915 as Sheng Song, Wei was classed as one of the founders of Chinese animation. He worked in animation for several decades and won several awards for his work. He has the credit of being the only Chinese artist to be awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Animated Film Association.

During the Cultural Revolution of China, Wei was not permitted to carry on with his work.

One of his best works was the short animated film The Conceited General in 1956. Other notable works include Where is Mama, The Cowboy’s Flute and Feeling from Mountain and Water.

Thursday, June 4, 2009

The fourth annual Maker Faire took place this past weekend at the San Mateo Fairground in San Mateo, California located in the United States. The first Maker Faire, which took place in 2006, had approximately 20,000 people in attendance. This year, more than 80,000 people were expected to attend; quadruple the attendance of just four years prior. On Saturday night, it was reported that attendance was up considerably over last year’s event.

Maker Faire, the self-declared “World’s Largest DIY Festival”, offers a forum where hundreds of makers and crafters alike man booths where they display their work. In the main halls alone, there were hundreds of booths. Outside the expo halls, the surrounding area was also filled with many interesting projects, some of which were mobile. In addition to all of the projects on display, there were a number of on-stage presentations. The biggest presentation of the weekend was given by Adam Savage who spoke on the topic of his “Colossal Failures”. During his talk, the Fiesta Hall was filled to capacity.

The theme for this year’s fair was “Remake: America” after President Obama‘s call to “begin again the work of remaking America”. In addition, “going green”, alternative fuel vehicles, crafting, steampunk and sciences for the young, were common themes found throughout the fair.

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Besides becoming a political stomping ground for the Pan-Green and Pan-Blue coalitions, there are other changes from past years of Taipei Audio Video Fair (TAVF). With those changes in mind, Wikinews reporter Rico Shen interviewed You-peng Wang, chairman of the Taipei Electrical Commercial Association (TECA), the main organizer of TAVF, about the 60th year anniversary of TECA and the changes to the show.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Michael Jackson’s This Is It, a documentary film based on world-famous singer Michael Jackson rehearsing for his last tour before his untimely death, will be premiered in at least 15 cinemas in cities all over the world simultaneously.

The film is due to premiere on October 27 and October 28. The world cities may be in different time zones with different dates but they will all be premiering the film at exactly the same time. One such premiere location is Los Angeles, in the US state of California, which will have the film starting at 1800 PT. Another simultaneity is the Odeon Leicester Square cinema in London, England, which will start at 0100 GMT on October 27.

Other locations holding concurrent premieres are the South African city of Johannesburg, New York City in New York, German capital Berlin, Russian capital city Moscow, Japanese capital Tokyo, Australian city Sydney, French capital Paris, South Korean city Seoul, and Rio de Janeiro, a large city in Brazil.

Michael Jackson died on June 25, 2009 aged 50, after suffering from a cardiac arrest. The movie will feature some of the rehearsal footage made in the weeks before his death. In total, there will be at least 25 cinemas premiering the film, but not all of them will be released simultaneously. Sony Pictures, the film production company, have yet to announce the other cities involved. Tickets for the film will be available to purchase from Sunday, September 27. The film is directed by Kenny Ortega, who previously directed all the High School Musical films. He also directed some significant Michael Jackson events, such as his This Is It concert and Jackson’s memorial service.

Jeff Blake, chairman of worldwide marketing and distribution for Sony Pictures, said: “Michael Jackson has an army of fans everywhere around the world… we are giving the audiences an incredible opportunity to join together in celebration of Michael Jackson’s incredible career.”

Tuesday, May 10, 2005

Google News submitted patent applications both in the United States and world-wide in September 2003 for a system of ranking search returns. The patent protection filings seek to control Google’s approach that filters headlines through a complicated algorithm, including the quality of the news organization. How much of this system is currently in use by the search engine giant is unknown.

Primitive search engines are expected to organically evaluate links based on how closely the keywords typed in the search field match an object link, and how many other links are attached to the object. Then a measure of relevance is calculated before returning a reply.

It seems some measure of the work being done at Google is a reaction to search engine optimization (SEO) campaigns which can, if done effectively, skew results to certain domains. A challenge for Google is to develop its technology to nullify efforts on the dark side of SEO and link-spamming.

What also seems to be coming out from this, according to research from the Internet Search Engine Database, is that Google does indeed have a ‘sandbox’ where domains are evaluated first by a human factor before being released into its algorithms.

In its first ever Securities and Exchange Commission filing since the company went public last year, Google indicated that it intends to spend US$500 million on technology development, more than double the $177 million it spent two years ago.

The language used in the lengthy patent application itself is difficult to understand. An excellent article titled “Google United – Google Patent Examined” found below, describes some of the nuts and bolts of Google’s techniques.